Musings

"So many girls have come and gone, as crushes and affairs, yet our friendhsip has remained intact. You see, friendship among boys are very much unlike that amongst girls - they last, maybe forever", he boasted to her. The girl sitting opposite to him smirked, and said, "No way. You would realise that sooner or later".That was more than three years back.

"You care more about your friends than me", his girlfriend complained."You mustn't compare two different types of relationships. I care about my friends, but that doesn't mean I care more about them than I care about you. You wouldn't understand because you don't have many friends", he retorted. That was two years back.

Now, two years into work, these sentences echo in his mind as he sits and wonders about changing times. At least, its a "documented feature" and not a "flaw", he consoles himself. Its very normal for youngsters his age to be affected by the "Quarter Life Syndrome", he'd read somewhere. He glanced at the big colour poster of the him and his friends, which had "Dil Chahta Hai" printed at the top....How times have changed. He remembered Akshay Khanna's dialogue from that movie - "Saal mei ek baar kya, das saal mei ek baar bhi milna mushkil ho jaayega".

His thoughts drifted to other friends. His close friend at college who drifted away for no particular reason. That friend was now married (an early love marriage), and they seldom talked - once in six months, compared to the daily hour-long telephone conversations, and night-outs for completing assignments at college. His friends from school, some of whom had full time access to email but seldom wrote anything other than in reply. They were genuinely busy, but what are we working for, if we can't be in touch with close friends at least once a month, he mused.

He sighed. He has begun to accept the changes. He knows that times can never be the same again. That some more years later, he may feel the same way he was feeling about the recent past.

He tried to put his stray thoughts to rest and relax by listening to some music. He took out his iPod and played a song at random.

And if I had a choice,

Yeah, I'd always wanna be there,

Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '05

Hey, wait a minute - Bryan Adam's song is Summer of '69 and not '05. He shook his head and dozed off to sleep.